Once a time there lived a wicked old lion among other animals that all lived in awe of the great beast and as such kept their distances from him. One day, as the lion was foraging the bushes searching for prey, it fell into a large ditch. Animals laughed, danced and enjoyed the misfortune of the lion. The Lion roared in anger and threatened to deal with all those who mocked it in its misfortune. The truth remained that it had to come out before meting out punishment to those that mocked at it.
Meanwhile animals were now enjoying limitless freedom living happily with each other. After kicking and roaring and threatening to no avail the lion reasoned that it had to mellow down, pretend to be friendly and come out first before showing its true self. The lion resorted to begging and pleading for help, promising to behave better and learn how to live a peaceful and communal life with neighbors. Animals never took the lion serious, they knew the lion was just making those promises just to be left off the hook. Suddenly, a healthy monkey who was jumping excitedly from tree to tree heard the wailings and pleadings of the lion and came closer. The lion repeated the story of preparedness to turn a new leaf, the monkey asked what its reward will be if it bends backwards and do what the lion wanted which every other animal is afraid to do. The lion praised the monkey for being courageous, assuring of its safety. The monkey retorted that its safety is already with it as long as the lion remained in the ditch. What was needed was something in addition to safety; the lion cashed in on the randy nature of the monkey and offered to give the daughter in marriage to the monkey.
The monkey joy knew no bounds as it reasoned how blissful it will be to be the king of the trees while the wife is the queen on the land plus the prospect of romance with the daughter of the most powerful animal on earth. The monkey swallowed the bait and lowered its tail to the lion that has become famished and lean while holding fast to tree trunk.
The lion came out and was happy but held the tail of the monkey. The monkey asked the lion to start fulfilling the promises, the lion advised the monkey to allow him rest first before knowing which of the promises that can be fulfilled. When the monkey pleaded that the lion be a man of honor and bring the daughter as agreed, the lion said that a man in a ditch has no honor, that the promises to look forward to are the ones he will make now he is no longer in the ditch. Monkey was all ears, promise number (1) the monkey should feed him while been held a prisoner. (2) Monkey will be punished for ever dreaming of being the son-in-law of the king of all the animals. Monkey reminded him that the promise was made by lion freely, that he the monkey merely accepted. The lion got angrier and told the monkey that he tested the monkey to know if it was one of those eyeing his daughter and that he cannot reward the monkey for bringing him out because foolishness is meant to be punished and not rewarded.
They were in this conversation while lion was getting ready for a meal after a long time and a foolish monkey crying and pleading when tortoise the wise one came around. Tortoise took pity on the monkey after hearing their cases and decided that though foolishness should be punished, you don’t reward good with evil. Tortoise cleared its throat and told the two antagonists that their creator chukwu warned him never to give judgment on something he did not witness as people are prone to wrong presentation of facts.
That the lion should graphically make his case starting from when and how he fell into the ditch while the monkey demonstrates how it was able to rescue the lion otherwise if it gives judgment there will be great famine in the land. The glutinous lion, so scared of possible famine jumped back into the ditch and beckoned on the monkey to demonstrate how he brought him out. Meanwhile the tortoise had left the scene as soon as the lion jumped into the ditch allowing monkey to decide on what to do as suicide has always been a matter of personal decision. Monkey jumped on a tree and reminded the lion of what he said about punishing foolishness.
Between April 26th and May 6th 2011 the largest lion of Africa fell into a big ditch in Imo state. It roared, kicked and threatened all to no avail. While still kicking in the court, it has deployed a reconciliatory approach and subtle diplomacy all aimed at coming out of the ditch. We hear they are making overtures to our king and kind hearted monkey (owelle) who in this case was responsible for pushing the lion into the ditch. They are promising both presidential and vice presidential ticket all at once. Even last weekend, a by-election into the Imo house of assembly took place in owerri west constituency.
The lion and his kindred fought with grit and determination and in spite of the propaganda of diminished popularity of the monkey and his kindred, they (lions) were humbled. I assure you that the call for party switch will be more strident in the days ahead, the lion and his kindred will be more desperate just to achieve their sole aim of coming out of the pit. My advice to our kind hearted monkey is to be very careful. No promise made while in the pit will be kept when out of the pit. Immortal Sam Mbakwe was never hooked to the so called national grid yet he remains the best governor ever produced in imo state. Our south-west brothers have debunked the myth of national grid politics. They were in Alliance for Democracy (AD) from 1999 to 2003. They hooked onto the national grid from 2003 to 2007.
If not for rigging, they would have shown their resentment then though they later retrieved their stolen mandates through the courts. It was in 2011 with the impartiality of professor Attahiru Jega that they made the point once and for all that they are better off on their own than the fabled mainstream politicking.
Our forefathers did their best in teaching us about life using animals in story form. They told us a story of a sick lion in the den. The lion pleaded with the animals to come on sympathy visit. They all went until it was the turn of our dear old wise tortoise who greeted from a distance. When the lion cajoled it to come nearer, tortoise refused on the ground that he could observe footprint of other animals pointing towards the lion’s den and that no footprint came out. I implore you our dear kind hearted monkey who is being lured with the young damsel of presidential ticket and party structure to please remember the story and look at the foot print of your predecessor who by the special grace of God did walk this same road.
Once you take the plunge, you alienate yourself from the masses. Forget the bullshit about their imagined diminishing popularity rating. Just calm down, remain focused and continue with your avowed program of providing grass root driven dividends of democracy. As for becoming the President of Nigeria I want to rely on the immortal words of Shakespeare in his play (Macbeth) which goes thus: - If chance will have me king, why not chance crown me without my own stir. Come what may time and hour runs through the day). Enough should be enough for the greedy lion.
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